|Rank|Athlete|Country|Time|Notes|
|---|---|---|---|---|
||Kaija Mustonen|Finland|2:22.4|OR|
||Carry Geijssen|Netherlands|2:22.7||
||Stien Kaiser|Netherlands|2:24.5||
|4|Sigrid Sundby-Dybedahl|Norway|2:25.2||
|5|Lāsma Kauniste|Soviet Union|2:25.4||
|6|Kaija-Liisa Keskivitikka|Finland|2:25.8||
|7|Lyudmila Titova|Soviet Union|2:26.8||
|8|Ruth Schleiermacher|East Germany|2:27.1||
|9|Christina Lindblom-Scherling|Sweden|2:27.5||
|9|Hildegard Sellhuber|West Germany|2:27.5||
|11|Lidiya Skoblikova|Soviet Union|2:27.6||
|12|Ans Schut|Netherlands|2:28.3||
|13|Dianne Holum|United States|2:28.5||
|14|Martine Ivangine|France|2:29.9||
|14|Kari Kåring|Norway|2:29.9||
|16|Jeanne Ashworth|United States|2:30.3||
|17|Lisbeth Korsmo-Berg|Norway|2:30.7||
|18|Christina Karlsson|Sweden|2:31.4||
|18|Sachiko Saito|Japan|2:31.4||
|20|Ylva Hedlund|Sweden|2:31.5||
|21|Doreen McCannell|Canada|2:32.2||
|22|Arja Kantola|Finland|2:33.2||
|23|Kaname Ide|Japan|2:34.2||
|24|Marcia Parsons|Canada|2:34.4||
|25|Jeanne Omelenchuk|United States|2:35.5||
|26|Jitsuko Saito|Japan|2:36.6||
|27|Kim Gwi-Jin|South Korea|2:36.7||
|28|Marie-Louise Perrenoud|France|2:39.2||
|29|Patricia Demartini|France|2:40.6||
|30|Paula Dufter|West Germany|2:45.2||

Question: what number of countries placed ahead of the united states?
Answer: 7